Raynors HCA 2018-03
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/15/2018
Authentic and complete issue of the New York Daily Tribune, April 15, 1865, 8pp., VG. The newspaper had already set the type for front page Civil War reporting when the news of Lincoln’s shooting starting coming in causing this news to be printed on page four. Under the column headlines “Highly Important, The President Shot, Secretary Seward Attacked” begins the 2-3/4 column reporting done in a series of twelve dispatches. The first dispatch, dated "Friday, April 14, 1865", simply states: "The President was shot in a theatre tonight, and perhaps mortally wounded." Each subsequent dispatch provides more information. The third dispatch, The President was shot at Ford's Theater. The ball entered his neck.2 It is not known whether the wound is mortal. Intense excitement.”. Then the fourth dispatch The President expired at a quarter to 121/2. ... The sixth dispath, “ A gentleman who was present thus describes the event: At about 10:30 o'clock in the midst of one of the acts, a pistol-shot was heard, and at the same instant a man leapt upon the stage from the same box occupied by the President, brandished a long knife, and shouted, "Sic semper tyrannis!"...The man was pursued, however, by some one connected with the theater to the outer door and seen to mount a horse and ride rapidly away then the seventh dispatch, “...The ball lodged in his head, and he is now lying insensible in a house opposite the theater. No hopes are entertained of his recovery. Laura Keene4 claims to have recognized the assassin as the actor, J. Wilkes Booth. .... The ninth in part, “The screams of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact to the audience that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet, rushed toward the stage, many exclaiming, "Hang him, hang him!" The excitement was of the wildest possible description...” The tenth dispath at 1am the 15th, “One of our reporters is just in from the Presidential mansion, who says an orderly reports the President still breathing, but beyond all probable recovery. ....” Then the 11th dispatch, “The President is slowly dying. The brain is slowly oozing through the bullet-hole in his forehead. He is of course insensible. There is an occasional lifting of his hand, and heavy stentorous breathing; that is all. Mrs. Lincoln and her two sons are in a room opposite to Ford's Theater, where the President was taken, and adjoining that where he is lying.....” The closing paragraph shows the confusing condition, "Later-The accounts are confused and contradictor. One dispatch announces that the President died at 121/2 pm. Another an hour later states that he is still living but dying slowly. We go to press without knowing the exact truth, but presume there is not the slightest ground for hope..." Near fine isuue.
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